"Since 2013, the number of reported cases of violence, particularly sexual violence,
toward children in Burma has increased dramatically. So too is this the case in Mon
State and Mon areas of Burma. HURFOM itself has seen a significant increase in the
number of cases of violence toward children received between 2013 and 2016.
However, due to the shame and stigma associated with sexual violence, as well as the
challenges faced when accessing justice in Burma’s complex, pluralistic legal system, it is
likely that the number is much higher than actually documented.
This report by HURFOM’s Women and Child Rights Project (WCRP) analyzes 20 cases of
violence toward children received from Mon State and Mon areas of southeast Burma
between December 2013 and January 2017. The types of violence ranged from rape to
human trafficking; however, in the majority of cases sexual violence was identified as the
primary motive. While HURFOM acknowledges the small size of the dataset, this report
aims to provide a platform for community perspectives on issues that they have identified
as important to them, rather than to make general conclusions regarding the
phenomenon.
While analyzing the cases, interesting patterns in how families navigated the pluralistic
legal system in Burma emerged, as well as a number of challenges they face when accessing
justice while reporting a crime involving sexual violence. Thus, this report looks not only at
individual cases, but also at the challenges villagers face when pursuing justice and the
forms of agency, both individual and collective, they use to overcome these obstacles.
This report is divided into six main sections. After the Introduction (Chapter 1) and
Methodology (Chapter 2), this report provides a basic overview of the legal and
administrative structures that deal with crime of a sexual nature. Furthermore, it provides brief examination of Burma’s international and domestic obligations to protect children.
Next, Trends in Violence toward Children (Chapter 4) are provided including types of
violence, perpetrators, and reporting chains, after which Voices of Villagers (Chapter 5) are
presented, including individual and collective forms of agency, and perspectives on the
increase in reports of sexual violence and challenges to accessing justice. Finally,
Recommendations (Chapter 6) for the Burma government, including local government and
administrative departments, the New Mon State Party (NMSP), as well as communitybased
organizations (CBOs) are provided..."

"Since 2013, the number of reported cases of violence, particularly sexual violence, toward children in Burma has increased dramatically. So too is this the case in Mon State and Mon areas of Burma. HURFOM itself has seen a significant increase in the number of cases of violence toward children received between 2013 and 2016. However, due to the shame and stigma associated with sexual violence, as well as the challenges faced when accessing justice in Burma’s complex, pluralistic legal system, it is likely that the number is much higher than actually documented. This report by HURFOM’s Women and Child Rights Project (WCRP) analyzes 20 cases of violence toward children received from Mon State and Mon areas of southeast Burma between December 2013 and January 2017. The types of violence ranged from rape to human trafficking; however, in the majority of cases sexual violence was identified as the primary motive. While HURFOM acknowledges the small size of the dataset, this report aims to provide a platform for community perspectives on issues that they have identified as important to them, rather than to make general conclusions regarding the phenomenon. While analyzing the cases, interesting patterns in how families navigated the pluralistic legal system in Burma emerged, as well as a number of challenges they face when accessing justice while reporting a crime involving sexual violence. Thus, this report looks not only at individual cases, but also at the challenges villagers face when pursuing justice and the forms of agency, both individual and collective, they use to overcome these obstacles. This report is divided into six main sections. After the Introduction (Chapter 1) and Methodology (Chapter 2), this report provides a basic overview of the legal and administrative structures that deal with crime of a sexual nature. Furthermore, it provides brief examination of Burma’s international and domestic obligations to protect children. Next, Trends in Violence toward Children (Chapter 4) are provided including types of violence, perpetrators, and reporting chains, after which Voices of Villagers (Chapter 5) are presented, including individual and collective forms of agency, and perspectives on the increase in reports of sexual violence and challenges to accessing justice. Finally, Recommendations (Chapter 6) for the Burma government, including local government and administrative departments, the New Mon State Party (NMSP), as well as communitybased organizations (CBOs) are provided..."

Executive Summary:
"The growing domestic and international attention being paid to child
labor in Burma, also known as Myanmar, signals a vital step in the
country’s reform and development process. The advent of new
funding to research the scope of the problem, proposed amendments to
labor laws, and popularized documentaries exposing the lives of working
children have indicated fresh interest in revealing and reducing the
incidence of child labor.
However, the catalyst for this report was sparked by observations
that these proliferating activities and discussions are often largely
restricted to urban areas, particularly regarding the well-known prevalence
of Burma’s “teashop boys.” While urban forms of child labor warrant
immediate and effective interventions, the ambiguity that shrouds less
visible forms of the practice, especially occurring in rural ethnic villages
and communities tucked against the country’s vast borderline,
necessitates targeted illumination. During several interviews conducted for
this report, civil society members and child protection officers described
child labor in Burma as vastly under-researched, and said that accurate
data from the country’s peripheral areas is almost nonexistent.
Almost half of the occurrences of child labor documented for this
report were found in agricultural practices, primarily on rubber plantations
and betel nut farms. An equivalent number of children interviewed were
working in furniture factories, waiting tables or washing dishes in small
restaurants, or searching garbage for recyclables to redeem. Others still
were engaged as day laborers, piecing together daily wages by clearing
weeds on plantations, gathering grasses to make brooms, or working as
cowhands or woodcutters.
Income scarcity and food insecurity were central themes collected in
many family narratives, but were also often rooted in other fundamental
social issues. Poverty was not necessarily the sole cause of child labor, but
rather the two were jointly symptomatic of poor access to education and
healthcare, landlessness, migration, and the effects of decades of armed
conflict and human rights abuses. Children, and particularly young girls,
were also subject to social and gender norms that contributed to their
entry into the workforce. The reduced likelihood that working children will
complete their education and the increased risks associated with labor
performed during children’s early developmental stages were found to
feed directly back into these same family burdens that led to child labor.
In short, the many interconnecting social issues, economic and labor
policies, and community histories surrounding child labor in rural areas are
beyond the scope of this report to fully catalogue or evaluate. Instead, the
research presented herein telescopes in on a very small but highly
underreported area of child labor, and aims to amplify the voices and cast
a light on the experiences of rural working children in Mon areas."

"Research by the Women and Child Rights Project (WCRP) has demonstrated that grave violations of children’s rights continue to occur in southern Burma despite the creation, by the United Nations, of the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM) pursuant to United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1612 on Children and Armed Conflict passed in 2005.
The Burmese government has failed to meet the time-bound action plan under Resolution 1612, demonstrated by the fact that WCRP researchers found numerous accounts of ‘grave violations’ under United Nations Security Council’s Resolution 1612 on children and armed conflict. These violations, committed by Burmese soldiers against children in southern Burma, include recruitment of child soldiers, killing and maiming, rape and sexual abuse, and forced labor. Though the Burmese government agreed to the implementation of a monitoring and reporting mechanism (MRM), pursuant to Resolution 1612, to report on instances of these grave violations, WCRP has found that abuses have continued unabated since 2005.
The data detailed below provide evidence of widespread and systematic abuses, the vast majority of which were committed by soldiers from the Tatmadaw, the Burmese military. These confirmed cases of grave violations, taken from just 15 villages in two townships, committed over a period of 5 years, suggest that the Burmese government has failed to live up to its obligations under international law to protect children during situations of armed conflict. Limitations imposed by the Burmese government on the UN country team has made it difficult for them to receive, or verify, accounts of grave violations, in turn preventing the MRM from making a noticeable impact on the continued widespread abuse of children in southern Burma. WCRP’s data strongly suggests that the real numbers of abuses against children is vastly greater than officially recognized.
Additionally, despite the fact that WCRP’s primary research covered only the period from 2005 through November 2010, recent updated reports suggest that all of the violations documented by WCRP have continued to occur over the course of the past year. Despite the political changes that may be underway in Naypyidaw, children in areas where armed conflict is ongoing continue to suffer grave violations. Thus, the international community must take further action to ensure that the MRM can effectively protect the rights of Burma’s children and realize the objective put forth in Resolution 1612, an end to the grave violations of children’s rights..."

Mon National Education Policy: "... the committee has very limited authority and resources to tackle the rights for children education in Mon territory under current circumstances because the ruling military government still refused to acknowledge the role of the committee in urban areas after cease-fire agreement..." Cases described.